


No who cares, no vacant stares

by SecondStarOnTheLeft



Series: Hard to be soft, tough to be tender [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-18
Updated: 2014-05-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 14:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1652324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's only a bloody commitment ceremony. She doesn't know why everyone's so bloody surprised.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No who cares, no vacant stares

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IndigoMay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndigoMay/gifts).
  * Inspired by [What to expect when you're expecting](https://archiveofourown.org/works/863209) by [SecondStarOnTheLeft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft). 
  * Inspired by [In Case of Emergency](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1167740) by [SecondStarOnTheLeft](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondStarOnTheLeft/pseuds/SecondStarOnTheLeft). 



> For the lovely Julia, slightly after her birthday (because she kept it a secret, boo)! Hope you like it, darling!
> 
> Title from 'From Eden' by Hozier

The thing was, she never actually hid it - hid _them._

Maybe she could have been more explicit about it, but the fact that they lived together, none of them had had any significant others other than each other in years, none of them ever brought the same person as their plus one twice in a row… Was it really that hard to work out?

Arya wouldn’t have thought so, but apparently it so was.

Then again, Granddad was old, so maybe it wasn’t so surprising that he’d be a bit thrown. Mum and Dad too, she supposed, but Robb? What the _hell?_

 

* * *

 

They’d decided to have a commitment ceremony, and that was the problem.

She’d mentioned something about a commitment ceremony, and Sansa and Bran had muttered something that sounded a lot like _finally._ Sansa’d gone back to chasing Leo back in out of the rain and Bran had gone back to showing Robb and Jeyne’s Edwyn how to do a tumble, and it had been fine. They’d all been having a good day, like they always did at Granddad’s birthdays, and it was _nice._

Then Granddad had made some comment about how it was high time Ned made an honest woman out of her, and asked if they needed help in getting a place of their own without Trys and Alla, and she’d been so sincerely turned about that she’d said “When I said _we_ I didn’t mean just me and Ned, Pops.”

Yeah, maybe not the best way in the world to phrase it, but shit, why was it such a big deal? She loved Ned _and_ Alla _and_ Trys, why was that a crime?

 

* * *

 

 

Sansa, of course, took it in stride. Sansa took everything in stride, but then, Arya was pretty sure that having another kid so your accidental first kid could survive leukaemia meant nothing could phase you, especially when you’d managed all that without ending up with your baby daddy.

“Are we going suits and dresses, or is it more casual?” she asked, propping Daryn up in his highchair and setting a bowl of Weetabix down in front of him. “Because I know a few people who’d be absolutely up for doing the dresses, if you want them custom.”

“We were thinking low key,” Arya said, wiping a smear of breakfast off her little nephew’s fat cheek without pausing. “But Alla does want something pretty, and she does like me in pretty things, too. She mentioned something about lots of flowers? And fancy shoes? So. Dresses and suits, yeah.”

“Ned’s got the shape for a three-piece,” Sansa said thoughtfully. “Might need to alter the shape a little for Trys, but they could _basically_ match. You and Alla, on the other hand, well, we’ll match colours and go from there.”

 

* * *

 

 

Bran had done his usual Bran _thing_ and just been like “Hey, so long as you’re happy, I’m happy. And if Granddad disinherits you, I’ll split my inheritance with you, alright?”

And it was alright, because it always was with Bran. He’d never thought she was weird - but then, she’d been the only person except Sansa to not make a big deal out of his wanting to be a gymnast, and she’d been the one to knee Theon Greyjoy in the balls for making fun of Bran for all that Lycra. He’d returned the favour by kneeing Theon in the balls for making fun of her for needing a bra by the time she was thirteen.

So yeah, not a big surprise that Bran was cool about it, and he did that thing where he _looked_ at Rickon, and pretty soon Rickon was cool about it too.

 

* * *

 

 

Arianne and Quent, Trys’ sister and brother, took it totally in stride, too. Arianne was kind of a little gleeful about it, which was kinda weird, but Arya had long ago learned to just roll with it when Arianne got like that. She was a strange one, was Arianne.

It was Quent’s approval that took Arya by surprise - he was, for want of a better word, kind of boring, and a total stick-in-the-mud, and she’d been expecting some opposition from him. Instead, though, he’d just sort of thrown his arm around Trys’ shoulders and kissed his hair and made him promise not to fuck this up.

Shit, Trys had been more thrown than any of them. He’d been expecting his family to freak out a bit more, but Arianne had just laughed and pointed out that considering their uncle, they really couldn’t afford to throw stones.

 

* * *

 

 

Ned only had his aunt and his grandfather left, and old Mr. D just smiled and held each of their hands, and Lyria smiled tearfully and said it would be _so good_ to have more family again.

Arya had never noticed the engagement ring Lyria still wore, even after all this time, and decided to talk to Trys about making sure Allyria Dayne was as heavily involved in the planning as possible.

 

* * *

 

 

Alla’s family were… weird.

Arya still had no idea how they were actually related, but Alla spent more time with an army of cousins than she did with her siblings, and that army… Already knew?

“Dude,” she said in disgust, shoving Merry right off the bench, “you piece of shit, you _so_ did not know already, fuck you.”

“I so did,” Merry said cheerfully, gathering herself up off the floor and laughing. “Alla, you haven’t exactly been _subtle_.”

“That’s what _I_ said!” Arya exclaimed, relieved that three families of the four were chill about the whole thing.

 

* * *

 

Beyond Sansa, Bran and Rickon, her family were a bit tense.

Granddad was so traditional that he had a conniption every time someone reminded him Sansa and Willas hadn’t swapped rings, only bodily fluids (again, maybe not the best way to phrase it), so it wasn’t a surprise that he’d freaked out. But Mum and Dad were taking their sweet time in coming around to it, and as for _Robb..._

Well, Robb was Robb. Him and Arya had never been close - he’d been weirdly like Aunty Lysa with the whole _“Shame she can’t be more like Sansa”_ thing, but at least Aunty Lysa had gotten over that, so this was just the tin hat on it all.

“Look,” she said, tired of putting up with his shit and afraid that he wouldn’t come to the ceremony. “Why is it such a big deal that I love more than one person? Is this another thing like how you don’t talk to Sansa properly anymore because her and Willas didn’t have any trouble having Daryn? Because, you know, A, that is _such_ a shitty move on your part considering her son was _dying_ at the time and your and Jeyne's difficulties aren't her fault, and B, you’re an arse. A complete arse.”

“It’s not _normal_ , Arya,” Robb said firmly, and it felt just like it always had when they were kids and Arya had wanted to play rugby with Bran and their friends and Robb had always pulled her away and said _“That’s not for girls.”_ “You’re not supposed to have more than one person-”

“Oh, so that’s why you married Jeyne while engaged to Roslin, is it?”

His jaw went tight and his face went red, and Arya didn’t even care that she wasn’t supposed to bring that up. Her and the three were in a healthy, open, consensual relationship, they didn’t keep secrets, they didn’t _lie_ to one another. Sure, it had been rocky at the start, and still was sometimes, but like, they loved one another. How could that be wrong? Why was it worse for the four of them to be together than it was for holier-than-thou Robb to have _stayed engaged to Roslin_ for nearly three months after _marrying_ Jeyne?

* * *

 

 

It was so weird to be sitting opposite all their collective parents like this. Hell, even Trys’ mother had come back from Portugal, and seemed as worried as Arya’s own folks.

“Are you all sure about this?” Mum asked, and Arya nodded firmly.

“We’ve taken long enough to work it out,” she pointed out. “Shit, Ma, we’ve been together since we were in college - we know who we are, I promise.”

It was an intense evening - lots of questions about kids, which Arya had expected, and about grandparenting, and about living arrangements and things.

And it… Went well. Really well. All their folks (and Ned’s granddad) were really actually okay with it, and Dad and Leo (Arya still laughed at that, even though it wasn’t _that_ funny, because now she’d have a nephew Leo and a father-in-law Leo) even insisted that they be allowed give her and Alla away.

And then Mum promised to have a Word with Robb. _Golden._


End file.
